Fox has dutifully adopted claims by GOP Reps. John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy that failing to immediately vote to extend Bush-era tax cuts injects "uncertainty" into the economy that hinders hiring, a claim which both Boehner and McCarthy made on Fox News Sunday. However, economists agree that tax cuts -- especially those for the wealthiest Americans -- are poor stimulus.

Media Matters for America presents a timeline of how Fox News hosts and contributors -- with a few exceptions -- came to tout Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell and celebrated her primary victory.

The latest beneficiary of Fox News' sycophantic treatment of Republican candidates is Damon Dunn, a candidate for California secretary of state.

Dunn first benefited from a segment devoted to him on a special weekend edition of Hannity, titled "The Fight to Control Congress." The bulk of the 8-minute-long segment was a fawning video profile of Dunn narrated by none other than Fox News contributor Dana Perino, complete with dramatic music and even a dramatization of one incident in Dunn's young life:

Hannity followed up on Tuesday by devoting another, 6-minute-long segment of his show to Dunn, airing a clip of Perino's profile that led to an appearance by Dunn himself:

As somanyother FoxPAC beneficiaries have done in the past during their appearances on the channel, Dunn concluded his softball interview with a plea for donations and a plug for his website.

Remember: it's only the middle of August, folks. There's another two and a half months of FoxPAC activism to come.

In an August 11 article, USA Today, citing data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, reported that "[f]ederal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation."

Not surprisingly, right-wing media have since run with this analysis. Discussing the report on the August 11 edition of Fox News' Hannity (accessed via Nexis), Fox News contributor Dana Perino said, "I have felt for a while that this is going to be the next wave of public outrage and it's certainly building." Gateway Pundit blogger Jim Hoft -- with his personal brand of unhinged rhetoric -- called it "theft" and asked, "Will someone please start a revolution?"

But while USA Today's headline declared, "Federal workers earning double their private counterparts," the raw numbers in its article don't paint a complete picture. In fact, as PolitiFact has noted in the past, simply comparing federal employees' compensation with their private sector counterparts "is not an apples-to-apples comparison."

As Media Matters' noted yesterday, Fox News' Dana Perino apologized for falsely claiming last week that President Obama supported the release of the Lockerbie bomber. Perino said she was "glad there's a website out there that can track my every move and keep me honest."

Mediaite's Tommy Christopher says others can learn from Perino, even if the apology was a bit "sarcastic":

Perino may have been a tad sarcastic in her veiled praise for Media Matters, but hers is exactly the right attitude to take. All too often, when a media figure gets called out, the tendency is to point the finger elsewhere. It was refreshing to hear Perino own her mistake, and thank those who pointed it out.

There will be some who will note that her apology comes a week late, but I think it works out better that way. She's speaking to the same audience who heard her initial report, and the distance from last week's story gives the apology some air of its own to breathe.

On Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy continued the Fox tradition of giving Republican guests softball interviews by hosting three Republican attorneys general who are filing lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform law. Doocy failed to note that legal experts have said that the health care reform bill is constitutional.

The New York Times was forced to issue two corrections after relying on Capitol Hill anonymous sourcing for its flawed report on emails from former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The Clinton debacle is the latest example of why the media should be careful when relying on leaks from partisan congressional sources -- this is far from the first time journalists who did have been burned.

Several Fox News figures are attempting to shift partial blame onto Samuel DuBose for his own death at the hands of a Cincinnati police officer during a traffic stop, arguing DuBose should have cooperated with the officer's instructions if he wanted to avoid "danger."

Iowa radio host Steve Deace is frequently interviewed as a political analyst by mainstream media outlets like NPR, MSNBC, and The Hill when they need an insider's perspective on the GOP primary and Iowa political landscape. However, these outlets may not all be aware that Deace gained his insider status in conservative circles by broadcasting full-throated endorsements of extreme right-wing positions on his radio show and writing online columns filled with intolerant views that he never reveals during main stream media appearances.